I hearby declare war!!!!

All racoons are now the enemy! I found chicken dead the other day and thought a racoon must have gotten her. So that night I shut up everyone in the chicken run thinking they would be safe in there. Boy was I wrong.
That night I heard a ruckus and ran out to the run. There were chickens freaking out all of the place. I finally saw that bastard racoon hanging off the fence trying to get out through a gap in the netting that covers the whole run. Seeing as he was stuck I grabbed a rake and poked him repeatedly with the handle end of it. He was pissed and make all kinds of funky noises at me for poking him. Eventually he got back out and I closed up the gap.

After this I tried to find the chickens two of them had escaped up to the deck and were ok. At that time I checked all over and found one other chicken hiding under a bush. So there were three left that I could find. I thought perhaps the coons had taked the two missing ones away to eat.

When I got up the next day I found one of the chickens I thought was missing torn up in the run. I think she must have been hiding and then the racoons came back ( after I poked the damn thing) to kill another one.
One of the survivors has a wound on her neck where I think the racoon had tried to bite her but she must have gotten away.

I have seen racoons in the backyard before but they never bothered the chickens until now. I am going to lock up the remaining girls inside the coop tonight and set out some tasty cat food and peanutbutter inside the Hav-a-heart cage to see if I can catch one. Wether or n0t I will bother to have-a-heart remains to be seen. I love animals, alot. You only need to see how spoiled rotten my pets are to know that. I knew also when I first got chickens that there was a chance something like this could happen.
Chickens are natural prey animals...therefore they will attract other animals that want to prey on them.
I live in the suburb, I've lived there for 37 some odd years. The housing development was built on an old dairy farm back in the 70's. So I believe that as far as the racoons go I was here first and they are intruding on my territory. Racoons are not always cute inquisitive creatures that some people make them out to be. Just corner one once and you'll find out how nasty they are. Nope they get no sympathy from me. there are plenty of garbage cans and dog and cat food left out in the neighbourhood for them to scavage and no need to kill live chickens other than the fact that they can. So Mr Racoon may find himself relocated.....to racoon heaven.
This is a war I intend to win so be warned you little furry shits...no more chicken dinners for you